The Philippines’ labor force is slowly, year by year, being dominated by Millennials, or the so-called “selfie” generation. Born between the years 1983 and 2000, millennials grew up surrounded by the influences of social media and have easy access to personal technology, which makes it no surprise that these individuals are often characterized as collaborative, social, self-expressive, and adventurous.
Another characteristic that significantly differentiates them from their Baby Boomer parents is their emphasis on personal development and individualism. Millennials want to develop different facets of their lives and are generous when it comes to exploring their various interests and hobbies. As such, many of them find personally-constraining jobs and one-track careers insufficient to appease their need for variety and self-discovery.
“We see the value of understanding the factors that shape millennials as this helps us recruit new team members. Understanding this unique generation enables us to design programs that utilize their strengths, supports their success, and involves them in highly engaging activities that will bring out the best in everyone,” says TELUS International Philippines (TIP) Vice President for Human Resources Cris Rosenthal.
TIP takes on the challenge to find creative ways to understand, adapt, recruit, and retain Millennials while responding to the factors that impact their decision to join a company, particularly in the Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry. TIP learned that Millennials look at the company’s values, excellent career development programs, and engagement initiatives, apart from a competitive wage and benefit package.
TIP is acknowledged as an IT-BPO company that spearheads innovative engagement programs among its 12,000 team members. The company’s efforts contributed to high team member morale, resulting to an impressive retention rate, currently at 65% per annum against the industry’s retention rate of 19.97%. TIP supports and recognizes Millennial team members who are motivated toward contributing to the growth of the company and making a positive impact on their work environment. The company is proud to be one of the few organizations in the industry to have a University dedicated to helping their team members’ career development with their award-winning learning program that supports their individual passions.
“We consider our team members as the cornerstone of our business. Therefore, we provide them with an experience and environment, such as the TELUS International University (TIU), that no other typical BPO can provide. Our University is an avenue for our Millennial team members to find meaning in their work through an innovative curriculum that promotes personal growth,” Rosenthal adds.
TIU offers its team members a chance to pursue their Bachelor’s degree on-site at subsidized tuition rates from established schools such as the University of Asia and the Pacific and Asia Pacific College. They also receive additional assistance in the form of guidance counseling and access to TIP’s state-of-the-art on-site libraries.
As part of its caring culture, TIU created more opportunities for team members to pursue not only their academic endeavors, but also their different passions in cooking, foreign languages, fashion, and the performing arts through courses offered by top-notch schools. The company partnered with schools in the country known for their excellence, namely: Berlitz Philippines, Center for Culinary Arts Manila (CCA Manila), Coffee Academy of CCA, Center for Pop Philippines, Slim’s Fashion and Arts School. Best of all, TIP team members can share the gift of learning with their immediate family members, whom they can enlist in the TIU program so they can also enjoy a subsidy ranging from 40 to 70 percent depending on the school and course.
Maintaining the campus feel with a mixture of educational and extra-curricular activities, the company supports a large number of ‘clubs’ run independently by team members. TIP has established clubs for water sports, magic, entrepreneurship, running, dance, music, gaming, mountaineering, photography, chorale, and drama. These clubs support the passion and creative talents of Millennial team members from different sites and departments.
“We ensure that all the programs we develop for our team members reflect our company values of passion, growth, and a caring culture. Through TIU, we can develop our millennial team members’ passion and support their internal drive for continued learning and performance improvement,” concludes Rosenthal.